NOVEL NEXT Chapter 73: Bullying? You want us to bully you?
Ren Xiyang: “…”
Rian: “…”
Cassiopeia looked at them. “You’re not denying it? Do you have something to hide?”
Ren Xiyang crossed his arms. “How old were you in your past life? Did you start high school yet? Primary school?”
“I graduated from high school already,” Cassiopeia said, affronted.
“So you’re 17,” Ren Xiyang said. He doubted she skipped grades.
“I was 17 in my past life, but I’m 10 now,” Cassiopeia said.
“Do normal ten-year-olds send anonymous letters to defame and bully others?” Rian snorted.
“I wasn’t bullying anyone.”
“If it wasn’t bullying, then why did you send them?”
Cassiopeia raised her chin. “It’s everyone’s duty to make the world a better place and uncover bad people. And obviously, you two are bad people!”
“I think you’re an Angio agent,” Rian said..
“What, of course not!”
“You’re protesting against our actions to avert the plague-curse. Thus, you are an Angio agent. You should be appropriately contained and questioned.”
Cassiopeia gritted her teeth. “If you can actually read, then you’ll know that I’m not an Angio agent!” Why was this happening to her? Wasn’t she, Cassiopeia Schauss, the main character? Where was her main character halo? Was it because the main story hadn’t officially started yet? But with how things were going, the story would never start!
Ren Xiyang let out a sarcastic laugh. “Read? The novel? Do you really think this world is a novel? If everyone is a character in a novel, then you’re a character in a novel.”
Cassiopeia crossed her arms and glared.
Ren Xiyang’s eyes were cold. “The world is as real as it can be. If the plague-curse came, there’s a possibility that you would succumb to it and die before you find the cure. There’s the possibility that I will kill you before the novel even starts.”
Cassiopeia felt fear as Alyssa/Ayden’s red eyes stared her down. Alyssa/Ayden wanted to burn her to death! “Stop-stop bullying me! You can’t kill me, or else...”
Rian’s eyes brightened. “Oh, do you want us to bully you? Very well, let us bully you.”
“EEEK!!!”
Jagged blades of ice glinted right in front of Cassiopeia’s face.
“Don’t move, and answer our questions obediently, and you won’t get hurt,” Rian said in an indulgent tone. “Actions and words have consequences, and here are your consequences.”
Cassiopeia froze, hardly daring to breathe. She broke out into a cold sweat.
“How did you send those letters?” Rian asked.
Cassiopeia pressed her lips together.
“Answer,” Rian said. “Or not…we could hurt you and heal you as good as new, to the point your own father couldn’t tell.”
Tears of anger and fear burst from Cassiopeia’s eyes.
“I—I—I used a spell to write the letters—and—and I sneaked away a few times when I was out shopping or having lunch in the Capital and secretly paid some homeless kids to post them…”
“What spells did you use?”
“I don’t remember them all!”
“Tell me what you remember.”
The ice knives came a fraction closer.
Tears overflowed from her eyes, but she found no sympathy. Cassiopeia sobbed and haltingly answered, naming a few different spells.
Rian’s gaze deepened. What Cassiopeia did wasn’t enough to evade detection for so long. Duke Schauss must have helped cover her tracks, likely intercepting the letters from those homeless children.
The people who had sent the letters to the Postal Office had been adults.
It seemed that Duke Schauss wanted to pull down Earl Rosewood. He needed to be dealt with appropriately.
The ice melted back into water vapour.
Rian smiled pleasantly. “Thank you for answering. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Unfortunately, I’m disappointed in you, Lady Cassiopeia Schauss. The Cassiopeia Schauss I knew was a better person, and I will mourn for her untimely demise.”
“I am Cassiopeia Schauss.”
Rian continued to smile. “You’re being used as a tool, and you don’t even realise it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re acting like a cannon-fodder,” Ren Xiyang said. He looked down on Cassiopeia. “If you want to be a main character, you’re the one who should take a good, hard look at yourself. Right now, you’re the bad person. You’re the villain.”
Cassiopeia instinctively didn’t trust what Alyssa/Ayden said. “I don’t want to talk to you two anymore,” she said. “You’re both adults, I shouldn’t be in a room alone with you. I’m going home.”
“I don’t trust you,” Ren Xiyang said. He didn’t trust her not to out him as part of her crusade against people ‘messing up the novel’. “Before you can leave, you must sign a magical contract.”
Rian understood what Ren Xiyang wanted. He went over to his desk and smoothly wrote out a magical contract on special charmed paper.
The information revealed in this room by the three signing participants was prohibited from being revealed to people outside this room unless given permission by the original information holder.
The participants will be unable to communicate this information with intent.
If any information was communicated on accident, i.e., without deliberate intent, then the communicator will have their magic restricted until release by the original information holder.
Under threat, Cassiopeia was forced to sign the contract and was forced to keep a copy.
Then, Rian cast a few spells on Cassiopeia, removing the traces of tears from her face and the redness from her eyes. Her clothes returned to their neat state, and her papers straightened out.
With that, Rian ended the sound-blocking spell and opened the door. He stepped back, allowing Cassiopeia to walk out first.
Servants and guards waiting outside the door immediately came to attention.
“Take Lady Schauss home, ” Prince Rian said. “Unfortunately, our meeting has prematurely ended.” His face showed a hint of disappointment.
Earl Rosewood’s face, however, was murderous.
The Schauss guards immediately flanked Lady Cassiopeia Schauss and escorted her out of Prince Rian’s quarters.
Duke Schauss was right outside the door. The necklace had sensed danger and alerted him. He hadn’t expected the meeting to be cut so short. “Cassiopeia…Your Highness, Earl Rosewood.”
Prince Rian and Earl Rosewood came to the door.
Duke Schauss looked at his distraught daughter. Then he looked at the calm Prince Rian and cold Earl Rosewood.
“We meet again, Duke Schauss. We and Lady Schauss discussed, but unfortunately, we have some irreconcilable differences,” Prince Rian said. “Perhaps you know why, Duke Schauss.”
Duke Schauss drew his daughter towards him. “I’m not clear on matters between children.”
“If it involved only children,” Prince Rian said lightly. “Goodbye.”
Duke Schauss farewelled the prince and the earl and led his daughter away. During that entire exchange, neither Prince Rian nor Earl Rosewood apologised.
So, they had found out.
But Prince Rian thought too much of himself. After all, King Edric and Queen Mira had allowed those letters to circulate on their end. Whether Prince Rian liked it or not, he would have to play nice with the Schauss Duchy.
Once the Schausses had departed, Ren Xiyang turned to Rian.
“That went well,” he said drily.
He hadn’t expected Cassiopeia to do overly much. Even though she had more money compared to most commoners, her apparent age and current position were much more limiting than Ren Xiyang’s and Rian’s. But at the same time, she could talk to her parents. If she volunteered to heal for free, it would even benefit her reputation.
It would be nice if she did something. It would be nice if she had some interest and willingness to do something to help, however small.
But instead, she accused them of paedophilia.
He had his suspicions upon seeing the anonymous letter, and unfortunately, he was proven correct.
It wasn’t worth Ren Xiyang’s time to teach Cassiopeia. She wouldn’t trust him. Meanwhile, he had an entire fief to look after which was much more important.
The corner of Rian’s lips quirked up. “I must confess, I hadn’t predicted that it’ll go in such a direction.”
Ren Xiyang sighed. He needed to do something to get Cassiopeia out of his mind. “Let’s go for a fly over the Capital.”
Rian’s eyes brightened. “You are a man of brilliant ideas, Earl Rosewood!”
The servants and Royal Guards in earshot: “…”
Should they or should they not inform Count Aegean about this matter? It was a really hard decision to make!
In the end, they couldn’t physically stop Earl Rosewood and Prince Rian from opening the window and flying out. Prince Rian didn’t even ask for a sword, so they couldn’t disagree to give him a sword! They just flew.
The last things they heard were—
“Let’s go up high, I’ve never seen the Palace and Capital from above before.”
“Don’t fall and die, your Highness.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll grab onto you and use you to cushion my fall, Earl Rosewood.”
The servants and Royal Guards in earshot: “…”
Well, that wasn’t reassuring!
The Schauss carriage was quiet as it made its way back to the Schauss residence.
Duke Schauss’s face was impassive. Cassiopeia’s face would occasionally flash with anger.
Once they entered the Schauss residence, Duke Schauss spoke: “Cassiopeia, do you want to come to my office? Or should I call your mother?”
Cassiopeia sniffed pitifully. “I can’t talk to you about what happened. They made me sign a magical contract.” She showed him the contract.
Duke Schauss’s eyes flashed. “I see. Then rest well, Cassiopeia. A servant will bring some snacks. I’ll cancel the rest of your lessons today, okay?”
“Thank you, Father.”
Duke Schauss watched as Cassiopeia walked away to her suite. She was so small, she was his beloved youngest child, and yet…
Duke Schauss had unfortunately miscalculated.
After Cassiopeia disappeared from view, Duke Schauss strode away to talk to his wife.
Meanwhile, Cassiopeia went to her room and told all the maids to get out.
Then she collapsed on her bed.
Anger, regret, fear, annoyance, guilt, and disbelief all mixed in her chest, making her feel unbearable and stuffy.
She wasn’t a bad person! She read up on a lot of things in her past life about minorities, she knew that being LGBT-phobic was bad, she acted with integrity, and she called out bad behaviour!
But both Alyssa/Ayden and Prince Rian treated her as a villain. His Highness, Prince Rian, who had danced with her, who had asked if he could taste her baking, had treated her like a criminal.
She wasn’t really a bad person, was she?
Rian grinned widely as he and Ren Xiyang flew over the Capital. He couldn’t help but point out multiple different landmarks to Ren Xiyang.
The city below him had looked so small, yet at the same time, Rian had been able to truly see the scale of the Capital and its surrounding lands. Today, the skies were grey and the trees were withering, so he wanted to take another flight like this in spring or summer to see the full colourfulness of this city.
“Perhaps if we have time in the future, we should tour the entire kingdom by air,” Rian said excitedly. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”
“Develop a floating horseless carriage first,” Ren Xiyang said.
Rian’s eyes lit up. “Earl Rosewood, you’re a man of great ideas!” First the heating spells, now this! Floating horseless carriages had a lot more potential for being sold at very high prices to aristocratic persons. Spells could also be cast in written form. “Once the production of the heating lamps are well under way, we’ll start on floating carriages. Oh, there are so many features we need to include!”
“Hmm.”
Ren Xiyang let Rian chatter as he wished. As Ren Xiyang looked down on the world below, he was reminded of both how small and how big the world was.
To think that someone like Cassiopeia could trigger his dysphoria.
Ren Xiyang smiled wryly to himself. Maybe he should challenge Rian to a duel and get the emotions out.
Rian stopped talking and frowned. “What are you smiling about?”
…Or maybe not, he shouldn’t inflate Rian’s ego too much. “Since you’re very proficient at flying, let’s have a race,” Ren Xiyang said.
“Yes! We’ll start from the North Gate and fly to the South Gate before returning to my quarters for lunch.”
“Very well. Loser gives me 1000 gold.”
“…And if you’re the loser, you’d just give yourself 1000 gold?”
“That’s right.”
“No, I disagree, if you lose, you must duel with me!”
“Okay.”
Rian was immediately fired up. “Let’s go!”
Queen Mira was walking through the Imperial Palace grounds when she noticed something at the corner of her eye. She looked up, a foreboding feeling in her heart.
Her eldest son and Earl Rosewood were flying over the Imperial Palace at extremely fast speeds.
She wasn’t the only one looking up to see this sight. And she also knew that many others were also secretly practising this new magical method.
Queen Mira had a (proverbial) headache. She now needed to prepare some rules and regulations about flying. Before this, only wind-type mages occasionally ‘flew’, but they had tact and knew not to fly over the Imperial Palace. But once this new method spread, there could be chaos.
Rian had shown that he was capable of managing event catering, had shown his skills on his tour around Sedaveria to talk about improved agriculture, and revealed his ambition in his actions of gathering people.
And yet, Rian still did irresponsible things like flying over the Imperial Palace.
Queen Mira gave a deep sigh.
The last chapter’s question was if you could guess my inspiration for Cassiopeia. If you answered: TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), anti (anti-fan/anti-shipper) or anti-fujoshi (https://www.fujoshi.info/anti-fujoshi), then you’re correct!
Should I give more homework? 😆